‘Courageous and correct’: McConnell praises court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell praised the Supreme Court’s decision on Friday to overturn Roe v. Wade, the landmark ruling that guaranteed a constitutional right to an abortion.
“The Supreme Court’s landmark ruling in Dobbs is courageous and correct,” McConnell said, referencing the case that earned a 6-3 ruling from the conservative dominated high court. “This is an historic victory for the constitution and for the most vulnerable in our society.”
The decision marks a groundbreaking victory for conservatives, who have for decades launched a vigorous campaign against the 1973 court precedent. The ruling does not completely outlaw a woman’s right to choose to terminate a pregnancy; rather it gives individual states the ability to decide whether to make abortion legal.
“For 50 years, states have been unable to enact even modest protections for unborn children. More than 90% of Europe restricts abortion on demand after 15 weeks, but every state in America has been forced to allow it more than a month past that, after a baby can feel pain, yawn, stretch, and suck his or her thumb. Judicial activists declared that every state had to handle abortion like China and North Korea and no state could handle it like France or Germany,” McConnell said.
“Not anymore. Now the American people get their voice back,” he added. “The Court has corrected a terrible legal and moral error, like when Brown v. Board overruled Plessy v. Ferguson.”
Rep. Andy Barr of Lexington called Roe “the the worst example of judicial activism in the history of the court.”
“Regardless of one’s personal views on whether and under what circumstances there should be a ‘right to abortion,’ nowhere in the text of the federal Constitution is such a purported right stated or even implied, as the text was originally understood,” Barr said. “By overturning Roe, the court is empowering the American electorate to determine, through their elected representatives, what limits on abortion they want implemented in their state.”
When the initial draft of the decision leaked back in May, McConnell called for a criminal investigation, saying Chief Justice John Roberts and the Department of Justice “must pursue criminal charges if applicable.”
“Millions of Americans have spent half a century praying, marching, and working toward today’s historic victories for the rule of law and for innocent life. I have been proud to stand with them throughout our long journey and I share their joy today,” McConnell said.
Rep. Hal Rogers, also applauded the “historic action” that will “help preserve the sanctity of life in America.”
“The original Roe v. Wade decision in 1973 has resulted in approximately 63 million abortions - a moral injustice and heartbreaking loss of innocent lives nationwide. This monumental decision restores regulatory power to each state. It immediately blocks all access to abortion in states, like Kentucky, where trigger laws were enacted to put the Supreme Court’s ruling into effect simultaneously,” Rogers said.
The Democrat running for U.S. Senate against Rand Paul, Charles Booker, characterized the decision as “shameful.”
“This was an extremist decision made possible by Trump, Rand Paul, and the far-right Senators who worked to mold an ultra-conservative majority on the Supreme Court. They all agreed that the death of millions of women — our daughters, our mothers, our loved ones — is not too high a cost to pay to advance their radical, dangerous, and shameful political agenda,” Booker wrote in a campaign email.
In his own campaign email, Paul warned of threats of violence against anti-abortion groups, like pregnancy centers and churches, fueled by liberal outrage with the decision.
Asking for a campaign contribution to defend the ruling, Paul said, “these radicals have vowed more violence.”
“Let’s stand together and show them we won’t back down - that we will never stop fighting for life,” he said.
This story was originally published June 24, 2022 at 11:16 AM with the headline "‘Courageous and correct’: McConnell praises court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade."
